The present invention relates to a method of and apparatus for simulating rolling pneumatic tires which is capable of analyzing dynamic tire characteristics, e.g. cornering characteristics, vibration damping characteristics, wear characteristics and the like.
Pneumatic tires have made remarkable progress in recent years. Hitherto, such progress has been attained by patient works, repeating trial production, running tests, investigations and improvements. Thus, it is difficult to decrease the development cost and time.
On the other hand, recently, a finite element method becomes used to assist tire designers in analyzing static tire characteristics, e.g. load-deflection, with using a simplified tire model in which the tread pattern is ignored, or regarded as a plane, and reinforcing cord layers such as carcass and belt are regarded as a simple single shell element. Thus, there are limits to such static simulation and simplified tire model when utilizing in actual development of tires.
It is therefore an object of the present invention is to provide a method of and an apparatus of simulating a rolling tire by which accurate analysis dynamic characteristics and exact estimation of tire performances are made possible.